I went back to the headquarters of the front army and said it to Zhukov and torbusin with regret.
After hearing this, the reaction was different.
The chief of staff, Mr. biliuzov, gritted his teeth and said, "these damned German navies actually made false surrender and secretly sank the submarine when our navy soldiers relaxed their vigilance."
"The enemy is the enemy," gertov continued. "They are not reconciled to their own failure and will certainly struggle to the death."
However, tolbuhine's words were relatively objective: "I can't say that. Although the German Navy is our enemy, their actions to defend the honor and dignity of the navy are very admirable. If the German army is as stubborn as the Navy, we will pay a greater price to gain such an advantage in the battlefield. "
As for several people's speeches, Zhukov said with disapproval: "if the captured battleship is a battleship, it can also provide powerful artillery support when our army is engaged in coastal operations. And submarines can only be used to block sea traffic. If the enemy's supplies are completed by land transport, then they can't be used at all. If they sink, they sink. It's no pity. "
"Marshal," tolbuhin said with a smile after Zhukov finished saying, "according to the current situation, the Germans will be completely defeated by us if they support for one to two years at most. At that time, most of the ships of the German Navy will fall into the hands of Britain and the United States. Do you think we need to remind them? "
"It's not necessary." Zhukov waved his hand and said, "even if we remind them, maybe others don't appreciate it. Let's let it be."
After that, he looked back at me and said, "Rita, come to my office. I have something important to tell you."
Although Zhukov has his own office here, it is used very infrequently because he spends most of his time in the headquarters of tolbusine. If he doesn't mention it today, I almost forget the existence of this office.
When he came to the office, Zhukov said to me in embarrassment, "Rita, I want to tell you something. I hope you can be prepared."
When I heard Zhukov say this, my heart immediately raised to my throat. What did my heart say? Was the treasure hunt in my house in Moscow discovered by the relevant authorities? Or was it because I was too aggressive in the last negotiation with the Bulgarian representative, which made other cabinet always resign, and my superiors were ready to settle with me in the future?
Just as I was thinking wildly, Zhukov continued: "Rita, comrade Stalin has just given an order to let one of us go back to Poland to assist rokosovsky in the battle of crossing the river to save the Warsaw Uprising. I've thought about it for a while. At present, I can't leave, so I'm going to let you go back. After all, you are still the deputy commander of the first front army of Belarus. "
When Zhukov finished speaking, I found that what he wanted to say was not what he was worried about. I thought he had made a mistake, so I asked, "is that why you called me here?"
"Yes," Zhukov looked at me mistily and asked in surprise, "what else can I do?"
"I thought you were going to tell me to go to work again." After a perfunctory remark, I quickly cut off the topic: "marshal, what can you tell me when I return to Poland this time?"
Zhukov got up, went to the map on the wall, then shook his head at me and said, "come here!" When I got to the map, he began to explain to me, "because our army unexpectedly launched an attack on the enemy in the battle of Belarus, broke through their solid defense line in a short time, and advanced to the east of Poland at one stroke. In the absence of a defense line and sufficient troops, the tactics adopted by the Germans were to delay our army's attack with constant short assaults. Using the time gained by this short assault, other troops were transferred from Germany and other areas to form a defensive formation in the rear area.
If soon after the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, the rebel army in the city asked our army to cross the river to cooperate, we might have entered Warsaw. However, due to their constant internal contradictions, it was only a few days ago that they reluctantly reached a consensus, asking our army to launch an offensive from the East and cooperate with them to hold Warsaw.
The difficulty we are facing now is that the German army has assembled a large number of troops near Warsaw, and all the bridges on the river have been blown up. Our heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery cannot be transported across the river. You can imagine how difficult it will be for us to defeat our enemies armed to the teeth, who only have light weapons. "
I listened carefully to every word Zhukov said, and I was thinking about the chances of winning the battle. As soon as he finished, I quickly asked, "Comrade marshal, how many troops have we put into crossing the river?"
"In addition to the 3rd Division of Poland under the command of Colonel Stanislaw Galitsky, there are also six battalions of the 47th army."
"What, six battalions?" When I heard this, my heart sank. There were too few troops. It was just a drop in the bucket to capture a city as big as Warsaw: "didn't you say that there were at least two divisions last time?"
"Yes, Rita, there have been some changes. There are only six battalions for you." Zhukov said solemnly: "although the number is a little small, they are all excellent generals selected from the 47th group army. It should be enough to fight in the street."
I heard what Zhukov said later. The reason why the Soviet army suffered heavy casualties in every siege was that there were too many people. Hundreds of commanders and fighters often crowded in a street to charge the German army's solid firepower. They were indeed very brave, but the casualties were astonishing. If the forces of these six battalions are really carefully selected, then they can be used for some purpose in street warfare.
I can't wait to leave when I think I'm reduced to the role of playing soy sauce here, so I quickly asked, "when do I start?"
"Tomorrow," Zhukov said, "tomorrow morning, you will fly back to Poland."
The next morning, when I appeared at Lublin's front command, rokosovsky was stunned, then came up, took my hand and said, "Rita, why don't you come back and say hello in advance? Otherwise I will send someone to pick you up at the airport. "
"Marshal Zhukov didn't inform you?" Rokosovsky's words surprised me, "I thought you knew I was going back here."
"The Supreme Command informed us that it would send someone to support the Warsaw Uprising." Rokosovsky turned to look at the rest of the commanders, then shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "I thought Marshal Zhukov would be sent, but the superior sent my deputy commander back."
Rokosovsky's words caused a lot of laughter. When malining shook hands with me, he also jokingly said, "Rita, you've been busy for two months, either Kiev or Moscow, or livov or fejecht. As a result, you made a big circle and finally returned to Lublin."
After such a reminder from malining, I found that this is really the case. In recent months, there have been a lot of running places. It's become a panacea. You can wipe it wherever you need it. However, it's not a good thing. Although I've been to many places, I've been here for a short time. I can't establish my own personal relationship at all, which will have a great impact on my future promotion.
After greeting all the familiar commanders, I directly asked rokosovsky, "Comrade marshal, I don't know when we will launch the river crossing operation?"
"According to the plan, the fighting will start on the 15th of this month." Malining pointed to the map and said to me, "we plan to attack from the East Bank of Warsaw. After we get a firm foothold, we will cross the visva River and move to the west of the city."
"Chief of staff," I saw that malining was just talking in general, so I couldn't help interrupting him and asked curiously, "I want to know how the material storage in the city is? To know that so many rebels and citizens, the daily consumption of materials is an astronomical number. "
"We've considered what you said, Rita." "Therefore, we organized more than ten air drops before and after. In order to accurately deliver materials to the areas occupied by the rebel army, our air force risked being shot down by German air defense artillery, and used ultra-low air drop to drop 2000 tons of materials into the city," marinin said
Malining's words surprised me, because in my memory, after the Warsaw Uprising, only the U.S. Army carried out airdrop in the city, while the Soviet army had been watching the fire from afar, and even the airport was not willing to provide it to the U.S. Army. Thinking of this, I hesitated for a moment, then asked my own question: "I seem to hear that the US Army has also dropped supplies to Warsaw."
After hearing what I said, rokosovsky snorted heavily, and then said: "yes, they did air drop Warsaw, but because their pilots were afraid of German ground fire, they airdropped at an altitude of more than 10000 meters, and most of the materials fell to the German hands."
I have no doubt about what rokosovsky said. After all, I am the deputy commander of the front army. He didn't say high sounding words to me to cover up anything. It seems that the later claims that the Soviet army could not help the Warsaw Uprising were totally unreliable.
Just when I was going to propose to rokosovsky that I should go to the 47th army immediately, he said, "Rita, you've just come back. You must be tired. Have a good rest first. If there's anything, we'll talk about it tomorrow. "
I know the character of rokosovsky. Now that he has said that, it's useless for me to say anything else. It's better to push the boat with the current than to hit a wall. So he nodded and said, "well, marshal, since you have arranged this, I will obey your order firmly. Will you allow me to leave? "
Coming out of the headquarters, I was led by an officer to the apartment that malining had arranged for me.
The apartment is well furnished, with new curtains and bedding, and even a few women's dresses in the wardrobe. I think I have nothing to do at home anyway. I'd better go outside to see what this liberated city looks like. After a simple wash, I changed into a simple dress and went out with a pistol on my back.
I was standing outside the building, thinking about where to go, when I heard someone shouting my order. At that time, I was quite curious that I could meet people I knew in the street of Lublin. I quickly turned to look in the direction of the sound. As a result, I saw two familiar figures standing at the door of a shop across the road“ Nina, ulanova. " I first left and right to see if there is a car on the road, and then called the names of the two people, quickly ran past. Nina looked at me dressed like an ordinary person and asked curiously, "Rita, how do you wear casual clothes?"“ I want to walk around. It's not convenient to wear military uniform. " After my explanation, I asked, "Why are you two free to hang out today? Is there nothing in the company? "“ The women's health company has been disbanded, "ulannova said with a mouthful." what else can we do? "“ Dissolution? " I don't understand to ask: "what's the matter, why should the women's health company be disbanded?"“ The female health workers were assigned to the various units, and the health company was naturally disbanded. " Nina asked me with a smile, "Rita, I'm going to buy some food with uranova. Where are you going?" Nina's words reminded me that although the room was well equipped, the kitchen was empty and there was nothing to eat. Anyway, they were going to buy food, and I happened to go with them. Thinking of this, I quickly replied: "just right, I have nothing to eat in my apartment. It's just right to go shopping with you." The three of us walked two blocks and came to a food store. When I looked at the long line that I couldn't see the end, I felt a little flustered and asked Nina: "Nina, there are so many people. When are we going to line up?" Nina smiles and then says, "don't worry, Rita. We don't buy it here. I'll take you to a place where not only the goods are complete, but also the price is super cheap. "“ Is there such a place Nina's words aroused my great interest. Under Nina's guidance, we went one more street. Nina went to the two closed glass doors, stopped, turned to me and said, "here we are, Rita. This is it." I looked at the sign on the door and saw that it was marked "officer's shop".